You can communicate with the Build Forge server using the management console or the Build Forge client provided during installation. This helps to manage users and resources, to set up and schedule test projects, and to generate and analyze reports. What is important is to give users access to only what they need and manage users in groups. Build Forge is great at managing users.

Check out this demo that shows how users are given access to objects in the Rational® Build Forge® system. It demonstrates the relationships of users, access groups and permissions, and using subgroups to set up hierarchical access. See how to create a user, create a notification access group, and create an access group that allows users to edit projects.

It is amazing that in the last few years, so many companies are jumping on the Green bandwagon. I question some companies I see peddling their products in the name of green. But how about software companies? Can we find the value in Green for software? In the traditional sense, software isn't the first thing people think of when you say Green. We often think of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle with a 1970's perspective. For example, reduce your energy use, recycle materials, and find alternate energy sources. But to make this a better planet, we need to continue to challenge ourselves and look beyond. Not only in our personal lives, but at work as well.

As business people or software developers you may be currently participating in optimized multi-site collaboration and reducing travel, workload costs, and fuel emissions. You may be involved in a multi-site development effort, modernizing legacy applications with SOA services. Now that is the new Green or am I taking huge liberties?

In the developerWorks portfolio of demos, we have a great example of team tools that shows the integration with IBM® Rational® Build Forge and IBM Rational Team Concert. These tools work together seamlessly to provide software assembly for Jazz and traditional muti-site development environments simultaneously. Check out the demo!

So do you think companies are exploiting the whole Green movement? Do you think you can find the value in Green for software?

Let me know what you think and what is your favorite Green commercial? Here is mine!

This demo utilizes an Ant file. A common use case for log filters is the execution of commands regarding Ant files, because these commands do not always return useful exit codes. This demo shows the following tasks: creating a log filter, using a log filter in a project, and setting a project to continue on fail.

For most developers, the use of Build Forge has been confined to using the management console, or the graphical user interface (GUI). Creating and using Rational Build Forge libraries can be a smart programming practice and it is easy in Build Forge. Libraries are useful for extracting repeated code so that it does not have to be re-entered as a step or series of steps in each project; the project can simply utilize the library. Libraries differ from projects only in that they do not use a selector.

Build Forge can also be connected through a client and it can integrate with IBM® Rational® Jazz™ technology-based software, too. When teams need to create or integrate their custom build and test solutions with Build Forge, application programming interfaces (APIs), known as Build Forge clients and provided by Build Forge, play an important role. The client gives you a simple and robust way to add, update, modify, and interact with the Build Forge objects in the same manner that the management console does.

Check out this demo that shows how to create a library, copy a project, inline a basic library and then use it as part of a simple pass/fail chain.

IBM® Rational® Build Forge® is IBM's flagship product for build and release management. It not only provides an amazing potential to automate the build process but also to automate the testing procedures for any team.

For most developers, the use of Build Forge has been confined to using the management console, or the graphical user interface (GUI). Many teams are unaware that Build Forge can also be connected through a client and that it can integrate with IBM® Rational® Jazz™ technology-based software, too. When teams need to create or integrate their custom build and test solutions with Build Forge, application programming interfaces (APIs), known as Build Forge clients and provided by Build Forge, play an important role. The client gives you a simple and robust way to add, update, modify, and interact with the Build Forge objects in the same manner that the management console does.

Check out this this demo to learn how to create a basic "Hello World" project in IBM® Rational® Build Forge®. This demo steps you through the following tasks: Creating a server authentication, creating a selector and server, creating a project, running a project, and scheduling a project.

"There is no particular mystery in animation...it's really very simple, and like anything that is simple, it is about the hardest thing in the world to do. "Bill Tytla at the Walt Disney Studio, June 28, 1937.

As you know, the options on creating animation have changed quite significantly since the 1930's. What started out as a series of frames created by artists, which are then combined into a film, has since grown into the option of computer animation. The art of creating moving images with computers has even changed significantly since it's conception. Have you seen the movie Avatar? The computer animation in this movie has passed everyone's expectation.

Marc Mohan says in his article Avatar and the state of the animation art , "The combination of cutting-edge 3-D cinematography and revolutionary motion-capture techniques creates what they call in the video-game world an immersive environment. It's a shoo-in for a number of technical Academy Awards"

He goes on to say "the range of possibilities that can be explored using animation has expanded so much in recent years that the concept of a film like "Avatar" contending for such a prize seems, if not likely in the moment, then inevitable somewhere down the line." As we can see from this movie, that animation has had it's own revolution since the early years of Disney. Computer software has had many revolutions of improvement and right now we are living in one.... The "Smarter Planet revolution", software to help make this a greener and more sustainable planet. I'm excited to be part of it.